Ironman World Championships Race Report

Yesterday morning started just before 4am, with a breakfast of so much bagel with honey that i struggled to eat the last mouthfuls. With my breakfast washed down with a black coffee, we headed down to the Pier for body marking and final bike checks. The whole process despite being crowd, with athletes and relatives was completely painless, due to being so well organised. The rest of the morning (as pre race mornings) do went fast and the next thing i know is that the pro's have started and I'm standing on the Pier in my Blue Seventy Point zero 3 XT ready to get into the water. I got into a better spot than in 2008, when i ended up getting stuck on the inside of the peir, but still got completely drowned. (One particular guy completely dunked me, only to then swim a lot slower, and didn't come past me on the bike till the 35 mile point - where's the Aloha!). My swim wasn't to bad. it was hectic out the the turnaround, but then seemed to settle down. And i actually swam in a straight line, which is an achievement for me as i often think i add 100's of meters (okay exaggeration!), to my swim. I Still need to work on my swim as lost 12 mins to some of the faster girls in my age group. Work for the winter. T1 went smoothly and i was pleased to be on to my new Quintana Roo Cd 0.1. It was a lovely ride, i rode within myself and kept the pace controlled, to let my stomach settle, which i may be guilty of not doing in the past. Riding out to Kawaihae went quickly, there were lots of pack riding along this stretch. Before long we were up on the rode to Hawi and the wind was blowing a gale. At one point i was cleanly blown across the road and also lost my race number from by number belt. I was hoping the decent from Hawi, back to Kawaihae would be more pleasant with the downhill speed cancelling out the cross winds, but it was still gusting and their were a few times i actually got off my tri bars and was looking forward to the headwind, we'd have from Kawaihae back to Kona. I felt good the entire bike ride and stuck to my nutrition, hydration and cooling strategies throughout. On the way back to Kona i got a passing penalty for not making a clean pass, which pissed me off since the reason i stop the pass was to let the draft marshal know that i had lost the number, after the ranting at the briefing that you must let someone know you lost your number as soon as possible. So on entering T2 I had a 4 minute penalty to serve.
I started the run conservatively, knowing what happened in Ironman Nice, when i was dehydrated and had heat stroke. I wanted to finish this race well. I stopped at each aid station to take on fluids and put ice down the back of my bra and shorts. I had a few bad patches on the run, but held to plan of running between each aid station. I walked up Palani and also for a short patch out of the energy lab as could feel that i was getting very hot.There were some fast running age group girls on the run. Coming down Palani into the last mile, was a fantastic feeling. This time i completely took in and enjoyed the final 400m's into the finish chute, and somehow managed to muster a massive jump as i crossed the finish line. Happy to have put together a race, where i didn't end up with an upset stomach. Happy to have finished in daylight and not holding a glow stick.

There are still lots of things for me to work on, for one i need to be lighter and leaner to run faster here, to help keep cooler. But for me season is done. 3 Ironman between June and now has been challenging and I'm in need of some downtime. Then back to working on my weaknesses over the winter, ready for next year.

Swim 1:12:45, Bike 5:34:35, Run 3:53:43. Total time 10:51:08

Thanks to The Tri Store for their ongoing Support, Quintana Roo for my lovely bike, the 2011 Cd0.1 and Zoot sports UK/ DJM Products for their ongoing support with sponsorship.